

How I Wrote This
Brett Gordon and Karen Winterich
"Publish or perish” — it’s a maxim that we academics live by. But how does a paper become a publication? How do researchers take a rough idea and craft it into a draft? And how do they navigate the publication process, with all the bumps and bruises along the way? In each episode of “How I Wrote This,” marketing professors Brett Gordon and Karen Winterich speak to the authors of an academic marketing paper to get the backstory of how that paper came to be.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Nov 16, 2025 • 52min
Ep. 23 - How Fatal School Shootings Impact Local Economies
Have you ever been inspired to study a research problem, only to hear: “How is that relevant to marketing?” Such was the case for Muzeeb Shaik who wanted to understand if the impacts of fatal shool shootings extended to the marketplace. In this episode, JMR Co-Editor Karen Winterich talks with Muzeeb, John Costello, and Adithya Pattabhiramaiah to learn how they were able to build on initial data showing decreased grocery purchases to identify that heightened anxiety for consumption in public spaces not only impacts grocery purchases but also spending at food and beverage places, leading to their JMR article coauthored with Mike Palazzolo and Hari Sridhar.

Oct 18, 2025 • 46min
Ep. 22 - Frugality is Hard to Afford with Yesim Orhun and Mike Palazzolo
For some, the strategies that save money require money they don't have. This episode explores the "poverty penalty" and how financial constraints make saving money a challenge for lower-income households. Join JMR Co-Editor Brett Gordon as he speaks with Yesim Orhun (University of Michigan) and Mike Palazzolo (UC Davis) about their award-winning article, "Frugality is Hard to Afford.

Sep 20, 2025 • 49min
Ep. 21 - Brands Speaking Slang with Bryce Pyrah and Alice Wang
You might talk slang with your friends, but what happens when brands try using slang? In this episode, JMR Co-Editor Karen Winterich talks with Bryce Pyrah and Alice Wang about their article, The Slang Paradox: Connecting or Disconnecting with Consumers?, coauthored with Yiyi Li and Ying Xie. Hear how Alice decided to give the idea a chance even though she was uncertain at first and how Bryce has already learned the importance of perseverance in Episode 21. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Aug 28, 2025 • 44min
Ep. 20 - How I Wrote This, Live in Chicago!
How I Wrote This is back for Season 3. In Episode 20, JMR Coeditors Karen Winterich and Brett Gordon go LIVE at Summer AMA in Chicago to chat with authors of this year’s JMR award-winning articles. You’ll hear from Yiyi Li about her Weitz-Winer-O’Dell award-winning article with Ying Xie and also from Michal Maimaran on her Paul E. Green/Vithala R. Rao Award article with Szu-chi Huang and Daniella Kupor. Listen in for insights on how external collaborations on relevant problems along with perseverance resulted in these impactful articles.

May 9, 2025 • 49min
Ep. 19 Attention Spillovers from News to Ads with Andrey Simonov, Tommaso Valletti, and Andre Veiga
Does the content of a news article influence the effectiveness of ads placed within it? In this episode, JMR Co-Editor Brett Gordon discusses the recently published paper, “Attention Spillovers from News to Ads: Evidence from an Eye-Tracking Experiment,” with authors Andrewy Simonov (Columbia Business School),Tommaso Valletti, and Andre Veiga (both from Imperial College Business School). The idea for the paper was born in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the researchers learned that some advertisers were using “block lists” to prevent their ads from appearing on publishers' websites with pandemic-related news content. Did the advertisers have a point? Or, they wondered, might this be based on a misunderstanding of how we, the audience, actually engage with content and the ads that appear alongside it?

Apr 11, 2025 • 48min
Ep. 18 - Insights from Social Media Post Histories with Verena Schoenmueller and Simon Blanchard
We all likely know that there’s valuable data in our social media posts, but just how can this be used? In this episode, JMR Co-Editor Karen Winterich talks with Verena Schoenmueller and Simon Blanchard about their paper, “Who Shares Fake News? Uncovering Insights from Social Media Users’ Post Histories,” co-authored with Gita Johar. What started out as a collaboration to understand the spread of misinformation led them to uncover the value of social media post histories. While user post history can indeed be useful in predicting fake news sharers, it likely holds much more insight for which this paper’s multi-method approach may serve as a foundation.

Mar 10, 2025 • 48min
Ep. 17 Canary Categories with Ayelet Israeli and Eric Anderson
Every business knows that customers who spend more in the past usually spend more in the future. But what if there are some products for which the opposite is true? That is, seeing a customer buy one of these categories means they are less–not more–likely to return to you. JMR Co-editor Brett Gordon speaks with Ayelet Israeli (HBS) and Eric Anderson (Kellogg) to learn about “canary categories,” as in “canary in a coalmine,” which predict exactly this type of behavior. Tune in to learn more about how the authors navigated a complex revision journey.

Feb 16, 2025 • 54min
Ep.16 A Look Back on Corporate Social Responsibility with Sankar Sen
Ever wonder if those papers with 1000’s of citations are easy to publish? In this episode, JMR Co-Editor Karen Winterich chats with Sankar Sen from Baruch College’s Zicklin School of Business to look back at this oldie but well-cited goodie: Does Doing Good Always Lead to Doing Better? Consumer Reactions to Corporate Social Responsibility, published in 2001 by Sankar and CB Bhattacharya, before CSR was a hot topic. Then listen in as they discuss how authors can develop research streams and consider future research opportunities regarding corporate social responsibility.

Jan 21, 2025 • 37min
Ep. 15 Mini Part 2, How To Be A Good Reviewer
In part to of this special mini episode. Brett and Karen break down the review process and share insights from two current JMR reviewers.

Jan 12, 2025 • 23min
Ep 15: Mini Part 1, The Lives of Co-Editors
On this special mini episode of How I Wrote This, Karen and Brett take you behind the scenes to hear about what it's really like to be a co-editor for a journal.


